Diet advice is a lot like fashion. Trends come—wedge sneakers, drop-crotch pants, those skirts that are short in the front and long in the back—and a year or two later they seem hopelessly out of date. But the truly stylish always look smart; you’ll never see a photo of Pharrell Williams wearing crocs or Victoria Beckham in a meat dress. Here at Eat This, Not That! we see the same thing with the lean and fit: Those who stay slim don’t follow diets or nutrition trends. They follow common sense eating strategies that keep them looking fit for life.
Giving up gluten, throwing back shots of apple cider vinegar, juicing everything in sight—try them if you think they make sense. But when those of-the-moment diet fads are gathering dust in the back of your metaphorical closet, the simple, smart, sensible approaches will be there like a favorite pair of jeans or a perfect little black dress—look-great staples guaranteed to never go out of style.
NUTRITION TIP #1. Hide your weakness.
If you see it, you’ll eat it. If you don’t see it, you’ll still eat it—but not so much. That’s what a study at Google’s New York office, dubbed “Project M&M” found. Office managers discovered that placing the chocolate candies in opaque containers as opposed to glass ones, and giving healthier snacks like nuts and figs more prominent shelf space, curbed M&M intake by 3.1 million calories in just seven weeks. A similar study published in the Journal of Marketing found that people are more likely to overeat small treats from transparent packages than from opaque ones. Out of sight, out of mind, out of mouth.
NUTRITION TIP #2. Use the 1 in 10 rule.
For every 10 grams of carbohydrate listed on the label, look for at least one gram of fiber. Why 10:1? That’s the ratio of carbohydrate to fiber in a genuine, unprocessed whole grain. The recommendation comes from a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition that evaluated hundreds of grain products; foods that met the 10:1 ratio had have less sugar, sodium, and trans fats than those that didn’t.
NUTRITION TIP #3. Boost flavor to cut calories.
Ever notice how everything inside a McDonald’s—the burgers, the fries, the shakes—smells exactly the same? That sameness of scent is actually a tactic that can inspire you to consume more calories. A study in the journal Flavour found that the less distinctive the scent of a particular food, the more you’ll eat of it. Adding herbs and sodium-free spice blends is an easy take advantage of sensory illusion that you’re indulging in something rich—without adding any fat or calories to your plate. Furthermore, a recent behavioral study that taught adults to spruce up meals with herbs instead of salt led to a decrease in sodium consumption by nearly 1000 mg a day (that’s more salt than you’ll find in 5 bags of Doritos!).
NUTRITION TIP #4. Chill pasta to melt fat.
You can gain less weight from a serving of pasta simply by putting it in the fridge. The drop in temperature changes the nature of the noodles into something called “resistant starch,” meaning your body has to work harder to digest it. Cold pasta is closer in structure to natural resistant starches like lentils, peas, beans, and oatmeal, which pass through the small intestine intact and are digested in the large intestine, where—well, it gets kinda gross from there on out. A study in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism found that adding resistant starch to a meal may also promote fat oxidation. Suffice it say, colder noodles = hotter you. But you’ve got to eat it cold: Once you heat the pasta up again, you destroy the resistant starch.
NUTRITION TIP #5. Dim the lights to get lighter.
A study of fast food restaurants published in the journal Psychological Reports found that customers who dined in a relaxed environment with dimmed lights and mellow music ate 175 fewer calories per meal than if they were in a more typical restaurant environment. That may not sound like a dramatic savings, but cutting 175 calories from dinner every night could save you more than 18 pounds in a year!
NUTRITION TIP #6. Eat, Don’t Drink, Your Fruit
Juicing may be the rage, but like a certain Mr. Simpson, some juice can do more harm than good—including OJ. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who consumed one or more servings of fruit juice each day increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 21 percent. Conversely, those who ate at least two servings each week of certain whole fruits— particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples—reduced their risk for type 2 diabetes by as much as 23 percent.
NUTRITION TIP #7. Eat before you eat.
Eating an appetizer of a broth-based soup or even an apple can reduce total calorie intake over the course of the meal by up to 20 percent, according to a series of “Volumetrics” studies at Penn State. Consider that, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the average restaurant meal contains 1,128 calories. A 20 percent savings, just once a day, is enough to help you shed more than 23 pounds in a year.
NUTRITION TIP #8. Choose paper, not plastic.
Here’s a simple way to improve the health of your shopping cart: A series of experiments by Cornell University looked at the effects of payment method on food choice. When shoppers used credit cards, they bought more unhealthful “vice” foods than they did “virtue” foods. Researchers suggest that you’re less likely to impulsively buy junk food if it means parting with a hundred dollar bill than swiping plastic.
NUTRITION TIP #9. Water down the calories.
You’ve been told to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but why bother? Well, what if staying hydrated could strip pounds off your body? According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, after drinking approximately 17 ounces of water (about 2 tall glasses), participants’ metabolic rates increased by 30 percent. The researchers estimate that increasing water intake by 1.5 liters a day (about 6 cups) would burn an extra 17,400 calories over the course of the year—a weight loss of approximately five pounds!
NUTRITION TIP #10. Remind yourself to lose weight.
A recent study published online in Health Promotion Practice found that people who received weekly text reminders of their daily “calorie budget” and motivational emails made healthier meal and snack choices. A simple hack to help you slim down: set up reminders on your smartphone, so when 6 a.m. rolls around, it’s: You make 1200 calories-a-day look so good! And at lunchtime: Salad for the six-pack, baby!
By Yahoo Health via Yahoo Beauty

Eating seasonally isn't just better for the planet and your health—it's better for your wallet, too. Here's what to avoid in the summer, plus, tasty alternatives you should absolutely indulge in.
CITRUS
Sure, you'll find the odd Valencia orange at the store, but most citrus needs cold weather to mature and get that sweet, juicy flavor you expect. California grapefruits ripen in summer, but they tend to have thicker rinds and are pulpier than their winter-ripening cousins from Florida and Texas.
SWEET POTATOES
Sweet potatoes are harvested in the fall, and you might find local ones up until spring, but they all but disappear once summer rolls around. That's because they've got a fairly short shelf life compared to other root vegetables like carrots or potatoes. If you do find them during summer months, they're probably imports from China, the world's leading producer by far. But who needs 'em (and that massive carbon footprint) when you've got fresh sweet corn to look forward to?
BEEF
Burgers and summer may sound like a match made in heaven, but the fact is they can give your body temperature a spike. Foods that contain high amounts of protein and fat heat up your body a bit while you're digesting them. They move slowly through the digestive system, causing your body to use more energy. However, the spike in temperature isn't enough to cause you to sweat and cool down, which happens when you eat spicy foods on hot days.
POMEGRANATES
If you want fresh pomegranates grown in the US, you'll have to hold off until winter. At other times of the year, many pomegranates are imported from Chile, and you can bet these are doused in pesticides to comply with strict government regulations aimed at cracking down on the spread of pests and diseases across international boundaries. Nosh instead on homegrown juicy stone fruit, like peaches and nectarines, and give pomegranates a rest until cooler months.
TEA & COFFEE
Your favorite morning beverages are diuretics, so they're probably not the best way to start a sweltering day. Diuretics make you run to the bathroom more often, ridding your body of salt and water, dehydrating you in the process. Go for a fresh juice in the morning instead.
OATMEAL
Complex carbs—like oatmeal, brown rice, and whole wheat—are in the same boat as high-protein foods. The grains are tougher for your body to digest, and that extra work causes your body temperature to rise slightly. Stick with a chilled breakfast using our smoothie recipes instead.
ASPARAGUS
Asparagus is strictly a spring crop, and at any other time of year, it just won't be at its best. You might still find it locally in early summer, but expect it to be limp and low on flavor. Otherwise, it's probably imported from across the globe—typically from Mexico or Peru—where it's being farmed unsustainably. Fortunately, there are plenty of other fresh green veggies growing in summer, like snow peas and string beans.
SHELLFISH
Have you ever heard the claim that you should only eat shellfish in a month that contains the letter R—making them off limits from May through August? Well, there may be some truth to it. Seafood has seasons just like fruits and veggies do. They're typically considered "out of season" when they're spawning, which happens to be summer for most types of oysters, clams, and mussels. Harvesting spawning shellfish before they have a chance to reproduce may put populations at risk. Plus, they just don't taste good when they're fertile—they're said to be unpleasantly milky and soft. You can get around these problems by buying commercially farmed shellfish, but that comes with its own problems, like genetic modification. Stick to one of the 10 healthiest fish on the planet during these months instead.
By Rebecca Straus via MSN Health

Blemishes and scabs increase the antioxidants in some fruits.When people see a tomato that's sprouting five miniature tomatoes from its stem, or a carrot that looks like the foot of Sasquatch, it seems like a Little Shop of Horrors situation. But NPR says at least some scientific evidence suggests that weird-looking fruits and vegetables will not hurt you, but that they could actually deliver greater nutritional value than the prettier stuff.
Here's what some of the more recent findings discovered:
One study showed that an apple covered in scab has more healthy, antioxidant phenolic compounds, called phenylpropanoids, than a scab-free apple peel. Another study showed that apple leaves infected with scab have 10 to 20 percent more phenolic compounds. Similar research has found high levels of resveratrol in grape leaves infected with fungi or simply exposed to the stress of ultraviolet light. A study of Japanese knotweed, a plant with a long tradition of use in Chinese and Japanese herbal medicine, found that infection with common fungi boosted its resveratrol content as well.
As NPR notes, it's already been pretty well established that organic produce contains more antioxidants. It can't rely on pesticides like conventional produce can, so it ends up doing most of the dirty work. Research suggests organics end up with 20 to 40 percent more antioxidants than regular stuff and that those tend to contain a lot of compounds typically produced when plants are attacked by pests (flavonoids, phenolic acids, carotenoids, etc.).
Blemishes and gashes are sort of like kids playing in the dirt, or taking vaccines — it may make that piece of fruit a serious survivor. And it could even taste better: One apple grower says she's found she can make a more delicious hard cider using scarred Parma apples because they have 2 to 5 percent more sugar than undamaged apples from the same tree.

The reality is you have more control over your lifespan than you may think. Genetics only play a small role in how long you live. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average life expectancy is 78.8 years. If you want to live to the average, or surpass it, you should start making changes in your life now.
The secrets to living longer go far beyond the obvious acts of eating healthy and reducing stress. Simple things such as improving your oral hygiene, making new friends and getting enough sleep all play a role in how long you will live.
Did you know that having a positive attitude can actually add years to your life? It’s true, individuals with that have positive emotions encounter more happiness in their lives and happiness is strongly related to how long you will live.
Start today and take action; use these tricks to make positive changes to your life and further your longevity.

1. GET MOVING
Adding more walking to your day can add years to your life. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular brisk walking can help you maintain a healthy weight, prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease and high blood pressure, strengthen your bones and muscles, improve your mood, and improve your balance and coordination.
2. EXPAND YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK
Making new friends and expanding your social network has been proven to extend lifespan. Researchers say people with strong social relationships increased their odds of survival over a certain period of time by 50 percent. Friends help us deal with stress, influence us in a positive way and encourage healthy behaviors.
3. FLOSS YOUR TEETH
According to 21st Century Dental & Sleep Center, “flossing helps keep your immune system young... the same bacteria that cause periodontal disease also trigger an immune response, inflammation, that causes the arteries to swell.” Therefore, poor oral hygiene puts you at risk for gum infections. Flossing your teeth helps prevent infections, leading to a longer healthier life.
4. EAT YOUR VEGGIES
Maintaining a healthy diet is crucial to a long life. Vegetables are low in calories and high in nutrients. Helping you keep a healthy weight while also nourishing your body. The U.S. Food Pyramid encourages 3-5 servings of vegetables per day. (See: 26 Foods with Superpowers)
5. GET ENOUGH SLEEP
Depriving ourselves from sleep can lead to serious mental and physical health problems. Some of these include high blood pressure, impaired concentration and weight gain. Getting enough sleep helps maintain vital functions. According to research, “major restorative functions in the body such as tissue repair, muscle growth, and protein synthesis occur almost exclusively during sleep.”
6. QUIT SMOKINGWithin 12 hours after you smoke your last cigarette your body will begin to heal itself. The levels of carbon monoxide and nicotine in your system will decline and your heart and lungs will begin to repair the damage caused by cigarette smoke (quitsmokingsupport.com).
7. DRINK WATER
Water makes up around two-thirds of the human body, it is essential to maintaining a healthy long life. We use water to protect our organs, regulate body temperature, promote proper digestion and eliminate toxins. It’s important to avoid dehydration click here to find out why.
8. TAKE A MULTIVITAMIN
It’s almost impossible to consume all of the nutrients your body needs on a daily basis. That’s why multivitamin supplements are extremely important. It’s a healthy way to consume the nutrients and reap the benefits of whole foods. WebMD explains, “vitamin and mineral supplements can help prevent deficiencies that can contribute to chronic conditions.”
9. EAT BREAKFAST
Eating breakfast has numerous health benefits. It has been proven to improve concentration, give you energy, aid in weight loss and boost your metabolism. Skipping breakfast can put a damper on your overall lifespan. It has been linked to high blood pressure and obesity.
10. CUT OUT SUGAR
Sugary drinks and candies have been shown to cause harm to our heart, aid in obesity and affect our physical appearance. Cutting sugar out of your diet can lower blood pressure, lower bad cholesterol, reduce the risk for heart attack, decrease the risk for depression and will keep your skin looking young.
11. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Having a positive attitude and looking at life with an optimistic approach has been show to contribute to a longer life span. Jon Gordon explains, positive people tend to live longer, outperform negative work environments, make better decisions under pressure, are more resilient when facing challenges and have more friends.
By Nicole Dossantos via msn health

Meet the dietary pattern, a style of eating with a proven record of success.
Diets are out; dietary patterns are in – at least, that's what the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans seems to say.
That's big news for those of us who like to incorporate the report's nutrition advice into our personal eating habits when it comes out every five years. This time, the government suggests we abandon diets that glorify or shun single foods and nutrients (think butter, eggs, fat and fiber – past years' targets) and shift our attention to overall eating patterns, or the sum total of what, how often and how much we eat, as well as what we eat it with.
Why the move away from "good food/bad food" diets? For one, nutrition science is continually evolving and we are learning from our mistakes. Back in the 1980s, for instance, the guidelines told us to cut back on "bad fats" to lower our risk of heart disease – the No. 1 cause of death for Americans. But people who followed that recommendation filled the void on their plates with simple carbohydrates, such as pasta, bagels and fat-free cookies. In time, we learned those foods weren't any better for our hearts (or waistlines) than the high-fat fare they replaced.
So in 2000, we tried again. The guidelines issued that year redeemed fats – as long as they were "good fats." This recommendation was based on newer research linking populations that regularly ate olive oil, avocados and almonds with a lower incidence of heart disease. We followed suit, dipping our bread in olive oil, adding sliced avocado to our burgers and making almonds our go-to snack. But so far, the only thing that has improved is sales of those foods. Our single-minded pursuit of the perfect food (or fat) to fight heart disease has kept us from seeing everything else that contributes to its lower rates in people with different dietary patterns.
Now, after spending more than two decades rationing just three eggs into our weekly menus, we're being told cholesterol isn't as bad for us as we once thought. Does that mean it's time to order the broiled lobster tail with drawn butter to celebrate?
Not so fast.
What it means is precisely what the latest Dietary Guidelines concluded: When it comes to diet, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Put another way, when you eat foods together, their health benefits are greater than a single food could produce on its own. For example, eating eggs every day can lower your risk of heart disease if you are also eating plenty of vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, whole grains, fish and olive oil. On the other hand, eating eggs every day along with regular servings of fatty meats, refined grains and excess sodium from highly-processed foods can increase that risk. That's because the connection to heart disease isn't just about the eggs – it's also about everything else we consume with them.
Another advantage of adopting a healthy dietary pattern is that the benefits are cumulative, like compounded interest. So, people who have been eating a Mediterranean-style pattern all their lives, for instance, get an immediate return on investment by meeting their nutritional needs early in life to support optimal growth and development. Later, they receive a long-term dividend by preventing, or greatly reducing, their risk of suffering from the noncommunicable diseases of adulthood, such as arthritis, osteoporosis, macular degeneration and the ubiquitous heart disease. But this payoff requires making consistent contributions to your healthy eating plan, just like building retirement wealth depends on making consistent contributions to your 401K. Both are more effective the sooner you get started.
Choosing a healthy dietary pattern over a diet also leaves more room for the occasional holiday food exemption. (Sorry, but weekends don't count as "occasional.") That approach is different from the can-eat-can't-eat diet style, in which we're open to every loophole that might give us a free pass. Have you ever rushed off to work without eating breakfast so you feel entitled to partake in the office pastries? How about arriving home from work too tired to chop vegetables, so you eat pizza (without a salad) for dinner? What about the Sunday you finally get the whole family together for brunch and end up eating eggs benedict and a Belgian waffle to celebrate? You get the picture: Food choices can change with the seasons, but a dietary pattern remains the same.
Convinced yet? If so, the highly-regarded Mediterranean and DASH plans are a great place to start. Those patterns offer the best of what is known about the food-health connection when put together right, so you won't have to upgrade to something new in another five years. You also won't have to worry about getting caught up in the next fad diet that promises to solve all your health and weight issues because history has shown us they don't work in the long term. Think gluten-free, low-glycemic index, high-protein, low-carb, antioxidant-rich, paleo and probiotic diets, to name a few. It's time to move on something more sustainable.
You can start transitioning to a healthier pattern by following some of these simple tips. The goal is to make the right choice a habit so it becomes your default option.
Eat at least one piece of whole fruit daily.
Order “whole wheat” as your bread choice for sandwiches, toast and pizza crust.
Choose fish over meat or poultry for an entree at least once a week.
Drink one full glass of water with each meal.
Add a layer of fresh or grilled vegetables to every sandwich.
Use nuts or seeds instead of croutons on salad.
Make chili with more beans and less (or no) meat.
Have brown rice with all Chinese takeout.
Include some vegetables whenever you grill.
Use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream in cooking and baking.
Make your meat portions no larger than the palm of your hand.
Choose vegetables to top pizza, fill an omelet, stuff a potato or stretch a soup.
Keep hummus, salsa and sliced vegetables on hand as your go-to snack.
Be more inclusive of fruits and vegetables by including fresh, frozen, canned and dried varieties in your repertoire.
Copyright 2016 U.S. News & World Report